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Feb 12

I need six covers. I'm bringing my novels to Tapas, and can't for the life of me create a cover in the ratio that Tapas wants. My books are heavily LGBTQ, and star trans girls, drag queens, and gay men. My favorite artist is Ai Yazawa, so it'd be a dream to have an artist who can emulate her style, but I'm open to anything.

*One is a historical horror starring androgynous demons.

*One is a 1960's-1990's historical about the history of drag queens in the U.S.

*One is a sweet BL about Japanese music from traditional to visual kei about a couple in the music industry dealing with a terminal illness together.

*One is about a drag queen owned bakery in a small LGBTQ neighborhood who are suddenly dealing with an influx of Karens.

*One is a YA BL about a teenage celebrity boy catfishing a non-famous teenage boy and chaos ensues.

*One is about a small drag club dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

I want a lot of color, because it's LGBTQ and we're rainbow-y. I'd like someone who is experienced in drawing men and is familiar with our community. I do have the majority of these books complete, so you can read some of the chapters to get an idea for the covers if you'd like. The last book I mentioned is new and doesn't have a word written yet, though. I do have the old covers for your inspiration as well.

We can discuss prices. I'd like to see your portfolio. I'm excited!

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    Feb 12
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    Feb 13
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I could do it I guess. Though my art is not that good. How much would you pay?

Well, I'm available. I've done a few covers and art12 for some people here in the forum.
But I believe it would be best if you can detail the most important things first, so you can filter properly the people attempting to apply:

  1. Which style is that you want for these covers? Anime, cartoon, comic, semi-realistic, etc? And of course, if you could attach or mention the franchises of other content with the style you're looking for (For example: You want a cover with a Steven Universe style)

  2. Artists would prefer to have clear indications to know what to draw for the Cover, reading a whole novel is.... a lot of unnecessary information in most cases, if you're willing to pay then I believe you can give them proper indications, like which characters to draw, which angle, pose, etc. Clear instructions are better than having to guess.

  3. If its your first time getting covers done, I belive you could get some inspo from the Covers of already existing Novels/Comics in the LGBTQ category

I'd like to discuss prices. I believe it varies based on time it takes and how much is in the image. I don't want to under pay or insult with an offer that's too low. There's a variety of characters for each book, but it's mostly main couples and friendships, so probably two people per image. The majority of my characters are far east Asian and there's high fashion involved. Any details you need, I'm happy to provide.

Well I charge ÂŁ35 per fully shaded full-body figure, plus 30% for every additional figure added. If it's too high that's ok

  1. Anime style is fine. Ai Yazawa style is the dream, but I'm open to other anime styles especially the common BL style.

  2. Reading the whole novel isn't necessary. I'd just like the artist to get a good sense of what they're drawing, however much reading that takes for them personally. Or we can just discuss. I want the cover to actually look like what's in the book, and I don't feel an artist can give me that if they don't read at least some of it. Such as, how the characters would touch each other or interact on the cover.

  3. I've been researching LGBTQ Tapas covers for about six months. I'm ok with covers that look like these, of course, but my covers still need to retain the flavor of the novels they represent.

Well... An artist won't have a good sense of what they are drawing if the client doesn't provide clear indications and instructions of what needs to be drawn. An artist could read all the narrative material and still not know what it is the very specific vision that the author has in mind, because artists have their own interpretations, visions and headcanons too.

How characters would touch each other or interact, that's on you to describe to the artist and can be done easily without extensive narrative text, to correct the sketch or drafts provided, provide written or even graphic samples. Being clear and concise to obtain what you want is on you, leaving it to interpretation of the artist will be mostly risking getting frustrated if they "don't get it right" or risking being charged extra if you ask for several changes if they cannot get your vision right in the first go.

Hello there ! I would love to do this for you.

I love Ai yazawa's art style and I am big fan of Nana.
I have sent you a private message. I can do similar style to her artwork.

I have mentioned my price and examples of my artwork.

Is that not where the discussion portion of the collab comes from? We're supposed to get into it together and talk, right?

Yeah you can talk with your client on discord or telegram to give them clear idea.

Hi, there! Does it take a bit for messages on Tapas to appear? I'm not seeing your private message, or perhaps I'm not looking in the right place. Thank you!

I just joined about an hour ago. Could that have something to do with it?

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

You're the one looking for Cover Art, many here are just offering themselves because you're stating that you're paying, not really because they are hyper crazy for LGBTQ content and bring your vision to life but you have set an important rule here

Reading the book won't guarantee an artist will draw the characters in the specific, pose, facial expression, angle, ambiance, distance and arrangement you have in mind. If its an unpaid collaboration, then yes, discussion may be required so both sides are happy, but when it is a paid offer, then the client obtaining what they want and paid for is more important, and an artist interpreting things or coming with their own headcanons could affect the end result, especially long term that once the hype died the client looks at the work and it no longer feels conveying enough.

And of course, I'm talking from my experience as a commission artist that has been working for 10 years aproximately, and usually "vibe", "feeling" and "inspiration" are vague terms that vary from one person to another and usually lead to hit or miss situations, with artists either having to draw and erase more often, or clients losing their patience or being surprised if they have to pay extra. Worst case scenario is a non-happy client with a work that they'll have to pay another person to re-do after getting the money to spend again.

And regarding your inability to see private messages or create your own, that's because your account was recently made. It will be unlocked after a few days or more forum activity.

I will once again say that there is supposed to be a discussion portion between the artist and writer about how the characters look and what the writer wants on the cover in detail before the artist starts drawing. I'm not sure why you're lecturing me about this. I have done cover collabs before. I provided a rough outline of what I want in my original post to give a potential artist an idea of what I want. A very vague idea at this stage. The details come next once we've agreed to work together. I need to see the portfolio first to see if the artist is even capable of drawing what I need.